Television Review

The Crowded Room: Limited Series (2023) — thriller delays gratification with twist

In Manhattan, 1979, a young man is arrested for a shocking crime and an unlikely investigator must solve the mystery behind it before the real culprit strikes again.

This psychological thriller series starts with a baby-faced Danny (Tom Holland) and Ariana (Sasha Lane) shooting up the Rockefeller Center, but only the former is linked to the crime and arrested. The cop in charge of the investigation, Matty Dunn (Thomas Sadoski), thinks Danny might be a serial killer, but interrogator Rya Goodwin (Amanda Seyfried) has her doubts…

Much of The Crowded Room is presented in an interrogation format after Rya’s called onto the case, but neither Holland nor Seyfried gets the material they need until the second half of the show’s 10 episodes, making it a rather lifeless watch.

We disappointingly leave the crime behind and venture back through the personal history of Danny. It’s the 1970s in upstate New York and he’s living with his…